A Summer Treat

 Peach season is in full swing which means there is only one thing to do: make ice cream.One of my favorite things growing up was when my family made ice cream. We had the old-fashioned kind with a wooden bucket and a hand crank. Grandma and Pappy always made pineapple, occasionally there was a batch of strawberry. Being a machinist, Dad attached the churn to a grinder wheel on a bench automating the process and relieving the kids of their churning duties. He was way ahead of his time.I tried to recreate the memories but ended up with an aluminum sleeve that was kept in the freezer and went inside a plastic tub with a plastic churn. It didn’t last long and homemade ice cream fell by the wayside.When I returned home to Pennsylvania and became part of a vibrant farming community, the amazing fruits being grown in the region combined with milk and cream from my own livestock rekindled my want of home-churned ice cream. One of my elderly neighbors had an old churn in their garage and I borrowed it for a picnic I was having. The outcome jogged memories and offered a holiday gift idea for my parents. Later that year I received my very own White Mountain Ice Cream Churn only this one had an electric motor.There’s something about their dasher and wooden paddles that makes the final product turn out the perfect consistency no matter what type of recipe I’m using. I’ve make sherbet, gelato, frozen yogurt, and custard. There’s been ice cream made with cow’s milk, goat milk and even sheep milk which is decadent beyond belief.Given my regular orders most of the year, the ice cream and gelato dealers vendors must think I’ve gone cold turkey on a diet, but the truth is quite the opposite. I’ve been cheating on them with the fruit vendors, making my own while the season is ripe with possibilities limited only by my desire to drive over to the creepy gas station for a bag of ice.Several years ago I stumbled on to a recipe that I’ve had to make at least once a year. It starts with peaches roasted with honey and just gets better. But this year I decided to give it a try with the enormous sweet blackberries that were the size of my palm that showed up at market. Then there was the batch with strawberries and nectarines. Fortunately, my neighbors also like ice cream so I am not forced to eat all of it myself.With the growing list of cancelled events, I vote for everyone to take up making home-made ice cream to ease our socially distanced souls. If you’ve got kids, splurge on a hand-crank model and let them take turns. Trust me, they’ll never forget the experience. Home schooling? Making ice cream is a great chemistry lesson. Why must you add rock salt to the ice for the process to work? And for our budding chefs, let them create their own flavors and add-ins.There’s plenty of opportunities for adult fun, too. How many of you put away a jar full of pitted cherries in your favorite booze back during cherry season? Mix those into a batch of vanilla home-churn. I dare you.And if all this seems a bit too much for you, fear not, you’ll still find artisanal and farmstead frozen desserts at the farmers market made with the plenty of ripe fruit that was grown with love.